


In Plain Sight Fanfic: Strike the Slate (Ch 3)

by vega_voices



Series: Strike the Slate [3]
Category: CSI/In Plain Sight
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-20
Updated: 2011-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 20:59:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vega_voices/pseuds/vega_voices
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Marshall came to peace with the truth that this relationship, if it went beyond this morning, meant changing everything in his life. He’d work mall security if it meant he got to be with her. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Plain Sight Fanfic: Strike the Slate (Ch 3)

**Series:** Strike the Slate  
 **Chapter Three:** Risking Tomorrow  
 **Author:** [](http://vegawriters.livejournal.com/profile)[**vegawriters**](http://vegawriters.livejournal.com/)  
 **Fandom:** CSI/In Plain Sight  
 **Pairing:** Sara Sidle/Marshall Mann  
 **Rating:** M is for Adults Only.  
 **A/N:** Don't shoot me, shippers. This isn't Mary/Marshall. Nor is it GSR. I wanted to explore Marshall falling in love outside of Mary, and thanks to my renewed love of CSI it came together. The story is, however, steeped in Mary and Marshall’s friendship as she opens up to him and he to her and they both find happiness. This is for [](http://siapom.livejournal.com/profile)[**siapom**](http://siapom.livejournal.com/) and [](http://kittyknighton.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://kittyknighton.livejournal.com/)**kittyknighton** who have been my cheerleaders as I put this whole idea together.  
 **Disclaimer:** I have no claim on the characters in this story. I make no money and have no ownership. I am however a starving writer and if either show needs a hand, I'm totally available.

**Summary:** _Marshall came to peace with the truth that this relationship, if it went beyond this morning, meant changing everything in his life. He’d work mall security if it meant he got to be with her._

_Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow_  
And that saints and sinners bleed.  
~Bon Jovi: We Weren’t Born to Follow

Early morning light crept around the edges of the drapes, casting the room in the blueish hues of dawn. Marshall groaned, rolling over and stretching his arm across the bed. He was alone, but his senses told him everything he needed to know. Coffee perked in the kitchen and the radio played softly – the early broadcast of NPR’s Sunday Edition. He could smell the faint charring of slightly burnt toast and sweet, freshly peeled oranges. Through the open window, the soft scent of desert rose blew across his naked body.

How long had it been since he’d actually made love to someone? How long since he took someone out not because they reminded him of Mary but because he was actually interested? And oh God was he interested in Sara.

The bedroom door pushed open and over the edge of the bed and instead of his new lover, Marshall caught glimpse of a set of perky dog ears. Nick padded around to his side of the bed and stared at Marshall and Marshall wasn’t sure if he was being given approval or being told to get his lazy ass out of bed. But the smell of coffee was too tempting to ignore, so he rolled over, pulled on his boxers and jeans and headed toward the still mostly boxed up kitchen. Somewhere in the craze of yesterday, they’d managed to get sheets on the bed, but that was about it.

Sara sat at her small table, her curly head bent over the morning paper. She’d put an almost see through wife-beater tank top over her braless body and a pair of baggy exercise shorts hung on the legs he’d been buried between for most of the last twelve hours.

“Coffee’s good,” she looked up and smiled and Marshall came to peace with the truth that this relationship, if it went beyond this morning, meant changing everything in his life. He’d work mall security if it meant he got to be with her.

“Thanks.” Marshall swallowed nervously, the awkwardness of the first morning after hitting him hard. But while he poured the dark liquid into the mug she’d set out for him, he felt her long arms wrap around him from behind and she kissed him right between his shoulder blades.

“Marshall, if this was a one time thing …” her voice caught … “I get that. But if it was maybe Mary should be the one to come check on things from now on.”

“I don’t want it to be a one time thing either.” He set the coffee down on the counter and turned to put his arms around her. “It’s Mann, by the way.”

“What is?”

“My last name.” He smiled. “I figured you deserved to know.”

Sara blushed and rested her head against his shoulder. “So where do we go from here?”

Marshall shrugged and placed a kiss in her hair. Suddenly, he realized, he could get away with this. He had to be careful. Some people just could not know. But if Sara held to the rules of the program, no one ever had to know her past. He could even bring her home to meet his family and all they had to know was that she was a book seller named Sara Jennings. He knew her back story better than she did.

Mary would know eventually, but she would help keep it out of Stan’s knowledge base. No one else needed to know. He had friends outside of the service and his ones inside had no reason to know Sara was a witness.

They might be able to pull this off. And by the time he knew if this was a forever thing or not, he’d be ready to make a decision about his future with the service.

“Back to bed?” He suggested, nestling his hips against hers. “I’m out of town starting tomorrow morning and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Sara laughed. Marshall scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. It was Sunday and he planned to make the best possible use of the day of rest.

***

  
Bored, Mary lounged on the bed in Marshall’s hotel room, flipping through the pay-per-view selections while he poked around on his computer.

Since when did he start bringing his laptop, his personal one, on witness trips?

“Marshall?”

Really, she was hungry. She was hungry and horny and Marshall could help take care of one of the issues. Pay per view would take care of the other, but neither would get taken care of if he didn’t turn off his damned laptop. What the fuck was he doing anyway?

“Marshall?” She tried again. He was glued to whatever he was reading, a smirk on his face. “Fuck me.” Mary hauled herself off the bed and bent over her partner’s shoulder. He switched windows before she could get a good view of what he’d been reading, but she had seen one vital name. “Oh Jesus, Marshall.”

Fucking hell. She had thought it was a crush. She’d thought he was over it. He’d been making googly eyes at one of the detectives from ABQPD and now he was …

“Marshall, that had better not be what I think it is.”

She really didn’t know what it was. It was an email and all she’d seen at the bottom was the name Sara. For all she knew, one of his sister in laws was named Sara and they were planning a party for someone. But her instincts told her differently.

“So Sara and I email on occasion. We’re friends. We happen to have things in common.”

“Like nerddom.” Mary rolled her eyes, not liking the way her stomach was clenching. Something was up, something she’d been suspecting since her partner had first laid eyes on the leggy brunette from Vegas. “Marshall, be straight with me. Is anything … did anything happen?”

His hesitating response told her everything she needed to know.

“Fuck, Marshall.” Mary rubbed her eyes. “Tell me it was a one night stand and you got Sara Jennings out of your system and I don’t have to cover your sorry ass with Stan from here on out like I’m going to because I’m your partner and I give a shit about you.”

“I don’t know what it is, Mary. But it’s not just a one night thing.”

“Dammit.” She stared at him, feeling every minute of their partnership with the beats of her heart. Of all the bullshit she’d pulled over the years, it was going to be his heart that ruined everything. She wanted to hate him, but there was a look in his eyes she’d never seen before.

Peace. He’d already made his peace with whatever the consequences turned out to be.

“You’re lucky she’s technically Stan’s witness.”

“I know.” His voice was low, nervous, as he closed his laptop. “I know.”

***

  
The bell on the door jangled and Sara glanced up to see Marshall step carefully inside the busy bookstore. She had seven people on line, all clutching stacks of books, and the din of the customers drowned out the Blackmore’s Night album she’d had on repeat most of the day. Marshall glanced over, winked in her direction, and then made his way to the racks of sale books. Just like he’d promised, he was there to pick her up. Dinner at a little dive outside of town that no one from the service knew about.

Sara knew what they were doing, whatever it was, could get them both in a lot of trouble. But she’d spent a lifetime denying her feelings and Marshall … he had his own issues to deal with and she was ready and happy to help him. He could lose his job for what they were doing but he was willing to sacrifice everything. Everything.

“Five dollars is your change.” She smiled at the girl who excitedly held up the picture books her mother had purchased. What would a child born of her and Marshall look like? The tired mother gathered up the excitable little girl and Sara turned to the next people in line. At her edge of vision, Marshall hovered, now holding a cop of coffee in one hand and a first edition Douglas Adams in the other.

She wanted to lie naked in bed with him and listen to words glide out of his mouth. She wanted to feel his tongue dance in her again, to know that after, when he held her, it would mean more than sexual tensions released. They had barely spoken since last Saturday, despite the steamy emails they’d sent back and forth.

Dinner tonight. And she wanted to jump him in the back of his truck. To slide her panties down and just ride him, with their clothes barely disturbed. She wanted to explore the feelings that had rushed to the surface when he’d pinned her and had his way with her.

She slid the white copy of the credit card receipt into the cash register and looked up to find her lover standing right across the counter from her. He smiled, slowly, seductively, and Sara was so glad she wasn’t closing. The rush was almost over. She’d leave then, and maybe if they were lucky they wouldn’t be arrested for indecent exposure.

“Hey.”

She wanted to ask how the trip had gone. But there were things she knew they couldn’t talk about. Unless they could because she also knew what he did for a living. It wasn’t like she … God it was confusing.

She settled for snark. It was an easy fall back position. “You’re back in one piece.”

He laughed and passed a book across the counter. “No thanks to the cops in Denver, but that’s another story.”

Worry coursed through her. “Are you okay?”

“Really, I am.”

She rang up the book, giving him her employee discount, and realized suddenly that he’d always paid in cash when he came in to see her. So his movements around her wouldn’t be traced.

The little things mattered, she supposed.

***

  
“What did you want to do with your life? Before you became a superhero?”

Sara’s question startled him and Marshall glanced up from where he was measuring just the right amount of coffee into her coffee pot. He wasn’t quite ready to bring her back to his place. Not yet.

Quickly brushing the spilled coffee into his hand, he dropped it into the sink and then hit start on the pot. “I’ve always wanted to write,” his voice was careful, measured. “I’ve had fantasies of trekking out into the desert, just me and a notebook, and discovering the meaning of the universe.”

He’d never confessed that to anyone, not even Mary. But there they stood, in Sara’s kitchen, with Nick snuffling around their ankles, and he realized that he’d finally found that person who could make it happen for him. He’d always thought it just a dream, but with Sara … it was possible.

Would she have to be relocated if he resigned? If she opted out of the program, which was her free will to do since there were no criminal charges against her, could they take off into the desert together? He’d promise to protect her.

Sara smiled and stepped closer. “You still can, Marshall.”

“I love what I do.”

“I know you do. But you also have a whole life in front of you. And anyway, I already know your real identity. The superhero cover is totally blown.”

He laughed and shook his head. “My superhero cover brought you to me.”

“Now you’re sounding sappy.”

“I feel sappy, Sara.”

She laughed and it was light and beautiful. He wanted to hear it again, but first he wanted to kiss her, to keep her close, to touch the legs that had taunted him during dinner. Lucky for him, she was perfectly willing to comply with his needs.

***

They sat at a table in a back corner of the park, where no one but the homeless guys went anymore. Mary stabbed at her drink with her straw. Marshall stared at his hands. “We’ve been getting closer over the time she’s been in the program. Coffee at the bookstore. Lunches and the occasional dinner. I helped her move into her place right before our last trip up to Denver and things happened then.”

“And they’re continuing.”

“I really, really like this girl, Mary.”

“Enough to sacrifice your job?”

“Yes.”

She finally looked at him. “Marshall … you’ve been sleeping with her for a week.”

“But we’ve been getting closer for almost a year now. She is … Mary … she’s absolutely perfect.”

“Perfect? That’s a hard pedestal to live up to.”

“She doesn’t know I think about her like that.”

“I’ll bet she does.” Mary shook her head. “Look, dufus. You know I’ve got your back. If she makes you happy I’m not going to let some stupid regulation get in the way. But this could ruin everything.”

“If they relocate her, I’d find her.”

Mary sighed. “I know you would.” Again, she tried some sense of logic. “If this gets found out, you would lose your job and your pension. If you broke any laws they could even charge you …”

“Then people can’t find out.”

“When you put a ring on her finger, they will.”

“Mary, we’re just … let us enjoy it right now. It’s already hard enough.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “Okay.” Mary looked up and smirked. “Is she good in bed?”

Marshall felt himself blush, and part of him wanted to protect Sara, but he also knew she’d laugh right along with Mary. “Best yet.”

Mary cracked up. “Good deal.” She shook her head. Marshall just smiled.

***

  
He liked Bon Jovi. She liked Bif Naked. He knew how to mamba and tango. She was an air spirit, dancing on the winds. And if he wasn’t careful, he would spend the rest of his life loving her.

She was dancing around her house, singing along, slightly off-key, to the album in her CD player. Marshall sat back on the couch, watching the floor length skirt twist around her ankles. What kinds of childhood pressures had been released with granting her a new identity? What kind of woman had she been before trauma and heartbreak truly allowed her to start over? He wasn’t a witsec inspector for the mob guys who ratted out their bosses. He was a witsec inspector for witnesses like Sara, who were braver than he could ever dream of being.

He was just glad he had her. Even if … someday, he couldn’t have her. Even if it meant the end of everything he knew.

The song ended and Sara collapsed into his lap. “What’s going through your mind, Marshall?”

“Other than how much I hope you’re naked under that skirt?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a dumb thought.”

“Dumb thoughts are okay.”

“This part of you I get to see… who is it?”

“You mean Sara Jennings or Sara Sidle?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s the woman Sara Sidle was always too scared to be.” She stroked his cheek. “I never let myself let go, at least while I was in Vegas. I was much freer in San Francisco. I surfed and I played in the sand and I danced around in long, flowy skirts.”

“What changed in Vegas?”

“I was in love with a man I wasn’t supposed to love. But I couldn’t shake him and we were both wonderful and horrible for each other and it took our mutual ends of the world to realize that. Don't get me wrong, Marshall. There is a part of me that will always be in love with Gil. But ... since all of this happened ... I've realized I am so much more than how Vegas defined me. I just ... didn’t want to jump off the cliff. When I did, it was almost too late to change everything.” She paused. “Now that I'm here, I’m with a man I’m not supposed to be with. But it feels different. I don’t know why.”

“Fair enough.” He smiled and stroked her cheek. “What’s your schedule at the bookstore this weekend?”

“I’m closing Friday and Sunday. Why?”

“So we could leave late Friday night and then get you back in time for your shift on Sunday?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere.”

Sara laughed and kissed him. “Deal.”

_TBC …_


End file.
